It appears Nintendo is on a full-on nostalgia-attack this week. In the same Nintendo Direct live feed where a new Link to the Past game was announced, Nintendo revealed that Japanese role-playing game Earthbound would be arriving on European shores for the first time ever via the Virtual Console, later this year.
A release on the Japanese Virtual Console on March 20th fueled hopes that the game might also prove popular enough to make it here, which turned out to be correct.
Earthbound – actually the second game in the Japanese Mother series – has become a cult-favourite since its release on the SNES in 1994/1995. Critics praised the way the game poked fun at genre conventions, as well as lovingly acting as a homage to them. Earthbound will likely be more familiar to European fans through its protagonist Ness, who showed up as a brawler in the Super Smash Brothers series.
The title will join a number of other games which are due to be released on the Virtual Console this year, including:
NES
- Balloon Fight
- Donkey Kong Jr
- Excitebike
- Ice Climber
- Kirby’s Adventure
- Mario Bros.
- Punch-Out
- Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA)
- Wrecking Crew
- Yoshi’s Cookie
SNES
- F-Zero
- Kirby’s Dream Course
- Kirby’s Dream Land 3
- Kirby Super Star
- Super Mario World
- Super Metroid
GBC (3DS Virtual Console Only)
- The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages
- The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons
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